Bernard Barker, one of the five Watergate burglars whose break-in led to America's biggest political scandal, has died in Miami. He was 92.

The Cuban-born former Central Intelligence Agency operative, who also participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion, died at his home yesterday after being taken to hospital the night before, said his stepdaughter, Kelly Andrad. Barker appeared to have died from complications of lung cancer, and had suffered from heart problems.

Barker was one of five men who broke into the Watergate building in Washington on 17 June 1972. A piece of tape used by the burglars to cover the lock to a stairwell door was noticed by a security guard, setting in motion events that would topple Richard Nixon's presidency.

Barker and three of the others were recruited in Miami by the CIA agent Howard Hunt, with whom they had worked a decade earlier in the Bay of Pigs invasion. The fifth burglar was a security consultant for Nixon's campaign. They were trying to tap a telephone to gather information on Nixon's Democratic opponent in the upcoming presidential election, George McGovern.

While the national spotlight faded from the burglars over the past few decades, their deed was never forgotten. Barker lamented the infamy of his crime in a 1997 interview.

"I think it's time that people forgot the whole damn thing," he said at the time. "That was a sad time."

Still, Barker said he had no regrets about the break-in. He served a little more than a year in prison for his role and later worked for the city of Miami.

The Watergate affair made Barker well-known in Miami's anti-Castro Cuban community, where he continued to oppose the dictator over the years, said his daughter, Marielena Harding.

"His fight for true freedom continued to the end, and he was just sorry that he never got to see Cuba free," Harding said.